


A Nocturnal on St. Lucy's Night

by Eustace (Sibylline)



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Feelings, Friendship, Gen, Matt Murdock Needs a Hug, Matt Murdock/Happiness - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-09
Updated: 2015-05-09
Packaged: 2018-03-29 16:38:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3903340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sibylline/pseuds/Eustace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>fill for Matt/Anything to do with St. Lucy  ("St. Lucy is the patron saint of the blind and of martyrs, and is strongly associated with light. You can see where this is going.")</p><p>In which Nelson and Murdock (& Page) win the case, learn about candle crowns, and eat saffron buns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Nocturnal on St. Lucy's Night

 

It's mid-December, and Nelson and Murdock, Attorneys at Law, are contemplating the logistics of a candle hat. Five hours ago, they were being plied with coffee and saffron buns by three generations of Janssons, the owners of the Viking bakery. Three hours ago they were being plied with Swedish vodka by most of the Nordic residents of Hell's Kitchen. It's Saint Lucy's Day, and they're being looked at as if they've delivered a minor miracle, which is almost true.

Because: twelve hours ago, Nelson and Murdock, Attorneys at Law, were handing the Housing Authority of New York their asses. The Housing Authority, had dreamt of gentrification and glossy condominiums, then, waking, tried to devour a block of Hell's Kitchen (including the bakery) through eminent domain. Nelson and Murdock had pried open the hinges of their jaws and made them spit it back out.

Matt had quoted O'Connor and Thomas and made the court face the wreckage of _Kelo v. New London_ , with its wake of broken windows and broken promises and eviscerated constitutional provisions. Matt had quoted Marshall, told them to dissent, dissent, dissent. His words had been a straight-edged blade, left the opposition flayed open and bleeding before they even felt the cuts. He'd been white-knuckled and fiery and brilliant, or that's what Foggy can't stop saying anyway.

So the Viking Bakery is safe, for now, and the ACLU is readying the cavalry. But right now, Nelson and Murdock and Page ( _best damn avocados_ , says Foggy, one arm slung across Matt's shoulders and the other around Karen, and Matt has to stifle a giggle into Foggy's neck) are gloriously drunk, watching a procession led by a little blonde girl in a white dress and a crown of candles. The hall is full of tall, Viking-looking people, who keep offering drinks, trying to shake hands and murmur thanks, giving them sweet rolls and gently touching Matt's sleeve or hand, as if he possessed a holiness that could be passed on with the brush of skin on skin.

In the scheme of the questions of right and wrong, the delineations that tether humanity together, Nelson and Murdock have found themselves with clean hands, squarely on the side of humanity, and tonight is hard-earned redemption from their time spent treading those blurred lines.

Two hours ago, Foggy had poked Matt in the arm and asked what all this Saint Lucy's stuff was, said that Matt should know, being Catholic and all. Matt had pointed out that this was a Lutheran community, and all he knew was that Lucy was the patron saint of the blind (the nuns had given him enough medallions to last him a lifetime or three; he could still remember their shapes under his fingertips, variations on the theme of Lucy holding a palm and a plate of eyes. Matt does not mention this detail to Foggy) Foggy pointed out that it didn't explain the candelabras or the saffron buns or the white robes and candle crowns, but that the blind part did explain why all these blonde children were watching Matt as if he were something holy.

“ _It is the year's midnight, and the day's”,_ said Karen, and seeing their blank faces, asked, “What? Haven't either of you ever read Donne?” with incredulity in her voice.

“Was that covered in Contracts or Tort law?” Foggy said, and Karen just sighs, despairing.

One of the younger Jannsons is behind them, laughing at Matt and Foggy. She takes pity on them and explains: it's part of the Yule tradition-- it celebrates the winter solstice, the longest night of the year. from tonight onwards, the nights will only be shorter, the light will last longer. But there is still the winter ahead of us. So we surround ourselves with celebration, enough light and warmth to carry us through the long darkness of the winter.

 

Matt thinks about that, here at the juncture of light and darkness, the room filled with candlelight, the little girl serene in her fiery crown, the room ablaze in light in defiance of the midnight that puddles outside. Here, in what Karen called the year's midnight. Matt is familiar with midnight, but in his experience it doesn't often feel like this. Matt thinks of what poetry he does know, and all that comes to mind is Frost writing about home, home as _something you somehow haven’t to deserve_.

Standing has become a challenge, so he sits with Karen on one side, Foggy on the other. Here, at the turning of the night, he feels closer to home than he has in years: the warmth of their bodies blazing against his sides, their hearts beating slow and steady and _happy_ , bracketing him. He pulls them just a little closer, as the crowd lifts their voices as one into a hymn.

  
Outside, far above the city's dirty haze of light, the night sky is clear and all pricked through with stars.

**Author's Note:**

> The accuracy of my representation of the legal system is highly suspect, but I'll stand by the implication that Kelo v New London was a bullshit decision on the part of the supreme court. 
> 
> My represention of Saint Lucy's Day is also of questionable accuracy; my sources are Wikpedia and the American Girl Doll books for Kirsten. (take everything with a teaspoon of salt)


End file.
